Inexpensive battery banks, any out there?

[pappawheely]

If you will be easily able to get replacement batteries, then a Sam's Club, Costco, or BJ's membership might be worth it just for access to the batteries, especially with 2 solar systems.

If replacing the batteries will be difficult due to location, stationary and/or mobile, then you might want to invest in the Trojan batteries mentioned above.

What voltage systems?

Will the mobile system be a copy of the stationary system for simplicity, or will the systems have different needs?

Is the stationary system at the top of a mountain only accessed by a steep hike followed by a technical climb? If so, you might want to look at Lithium batteries.

Will you need to be very careful of weight with the mobile system? Will you be mounting the batteries inside a temperature controlled living compartment, on a heavy duty trailer, on a horse-dragged travois, ...?

Definition of TRAVOIS

a simple vehicle used by Plains Indians consisting of two trailing poles serving as shafts and bearing a platform or net for the load… See the full definition

www.merriam-webster.com

I found a Sam's club about an hour away. Both systems are 12 volt. I'll be running a fridge, laptop, some lights, a fan or 2, charging batteries. For ac I fire up the generator. I don't have an access problem. The mobile system is a CTEK d250s, 400 watts of solar panels, and 300ah of agm batteries. The stationary system is an Epever MPPT 20A controller, 300 watts of panels, and batteries TBD.

 

[1000arms]

I found a Sam's club about an hour away. Both systems are 12 volt. I'll be running a fridge, laptop, some lights, a fan or 2, charging batteries. For ac I fire up the generator. I don't have an access problem. The mobile system is a CTEK d250s, 400 watts of solar panels, and 300ah of agm batteries. The stationary system is an Epever MPPT 20A controller, 300 watts of panels, and batteries TBD.

standard 6v Golf Cart batteries.. You can get a Duracell (Deka/EastPenn) from SamsClub for $89, a pair of em for $180 gives you a 215AH 12V bank..

GC2 batteries by design are true deep cycles, super thick and robust cells.. will take far more abuse than anything else you'll get until your several times this cost.

 

[dreadlocks]

those sound like pretty minimal loads unless I'm missing something, fridge is like 30-50W, fan is like 100W max flow, laptops are usually ~50W, LED lights and chargers are mostly negligible, just a couple watts.. Not familiar w/those chargers but as long as they are multi-stage and will float correctly, they should work fine.. if they do any automatic equalization you cant disable you should put some ventilation in, dont need to be much just a fresh air tube.. otherwise your loads and a safe charger would be no concern indoors, you'll still want to check fluid levels twice a year but you'll rarely find it needs any, and it does it wont be much..

Every once and a while you should do a manual equalization of the bank w/a shop/shore charger and just open up the camper/battery compartment in an abundance of caution.. how frequently this needs done depends on how much your cycling it and how, but with those minor loads it wont need to be done that often.

 

[rayra]

@pappawheely If it's for your mobile studio, take a look here

Who wants to build their own storage bank?

Lots of interesting battery battery tech here, some at pretty good prices. 'Some assembly required' https://batteryhookup.com/products/new-lg-chem-n2-1-3-7v-120ah-cell-module

www.expeditionportal.com

Lots of interesting home-brew systems being set up, using various lithium tech and the 'energy density' is a lot better than monster-heavy 6V golf cart batteries. And the pricing for the components is similar. On the same order, anyway. I haven't had the opportunity to get into it. But 'home made power wall' in a Youtube search should yield tons of interesting solutions.

 

[Peter_n_Margaret]

In the "Land Downunder" I can kill a flooded wet cell LA in 2-3 years courtesy of the corrugations (you call it washboard?).
With AGMs on the other hand 9 years is not exceptional if treated properly. The gel support structure holds them together while the wet cells simply shake apart.
The best way to look after LAs (including AGMs) they need to be fully recharged on a regular basis.
Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome

 

[dreadlocks]

if that were as big of an issue as your making it out to be (it isint w/GC2's very thick cells), who cares.. a quality AGM bank costs more than 3x the cost, and you dont gotta treat ******** properlly or its all out the window.

Down under you dont have the crap we gotta deal with either.. here JCI buys Optima, sends em to mexico and now you pay the same price for your Optima AGM thats just as crappy as all the no-name chineese AGM's.. those guys with 10 year old AGM's are gonna be sad when they buy a new one and it dont last as long as the old one.

Lots of people can stretch GC2's out to a decade if also treated well.. but they are cheap and disposable so most dont.

 

[DaveInDenver]

Fwiw,
Some years past my buddy built his battery tray suspended onto a number of wirerope isolators.

No doubts experienced with isolators being an A&P guy, he probably used some formula based on battery weight, (maybe just seat of pants guess ?) to come up with effective dampening/isolation.

A&P, eh? I mean, it's not like we're talking rocket surgery here. Well, actually, imagine the headache they might have with electronics, avionics, optics and sensors shipboard, getting off the ground into flight or space or against military artillery. No shortage of ideas that might be adapted.

 

[rayra]

You should all look @pappawheely 's build topic. He's built a very interesting battery tray design that hinges down from between the frame rails of his intended moving van body / camper / mobile freelancing photo work studio which he'll take throughout the southwest for covering off-road races. lower weight, greater durability are both important.